With $4.43 trillion worth of trading volume in September 2023, Exness is one of the world’s leading brokerage firms. The Cyprus-based company makes online trading of various financial instruments easier for over 650,000 traders worldwide.
In this feature, Exness Chief Customer Officer Damian Bunce delved into the new era of the brokerage industry. He also talked about how the company stands at the forefront by offering “better-than-market conditions.”
Building trust
Some people associate the brokerage industry with scammers. However, as the Exness executive described, it’s been an “unfortunate part” of history that the industry has been battling in the last 20 years.
“Indeed, scammers have infiltrated every industry, and while their presence causes destruction in the early formation stages of an industry, they also catapult it toward safety quickly thereafter. As the retail trading industry has evolved and modernized, many scammers have been wiped out or closed down,” he said.
Thanks to regulatory pressures, loopholes have been closed and the impact that such bad actors bring forth has been mitigated. Many legitimate companies have begun to thrive, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and online consumption skyrocketed, thereby calling for a safer digital environment.
Leading brokerage firm
Today is a new era, a period characterized by fewer, larger, and well-capitalized household names and trusted companies, and Exness stands at the forefront in the field of brokerage.
“We would not be the company we are today if we had employed anything other than fully ethical standards,” Bunce said.
However, what sets Exness apart is not just its commitment to ethical standards. Its financial strength also plays a key role. This financial horsepower is an active part of Exness’ working capital. Because they have the capital, alongside a strong risk appetite to offer remarkable products to clients, they can build their success in an industry where the game of scale and size prevails.
Read: Exness achieves record-breaking trading volume of $4.8 trn in October
Controlling liquidity, offering protection
One of the advantages that Exness clients get is trading with conditions that outperform the market. This becomes possible through the firm’s size and financial position, which they use to create liquidity.
“Because we own this liquidity, how we allocate our capital to clients is within our discretion. We do that in several ways, [which are] mostly linked to prolonging client lifetime and protecting clients from liquidation when trading with leverage,” Bunce said.
One of the notable ways they do this is by providing negative balance protection at a 0 percent stop-out.
With this kind of protection, Exness can empower clients to use leverage more confidently, especially when trading larger orders. Should there be liquidation, traders can trust that their losses will not go beyond their initial investment.
“We commit our capital to any aspect of the trade that goes negative, so clients have unlimited upside but their downside is capped,” Bunce said.
Another aspect of their “better-than-market conditions” is that they offer volatility protection measures. In cases where a trader’s account balance goes negative, they have this protection mechanism in place. As long as the negative balance does not exceed half of the spread, the order will not be liquidated.
In addition, they also commit their capital to offer a range of methods to combat gaps and slippage.
“We say they are better-than-market because if you were to execute the exact same order on a regulated stock or currency exchange, none of these advantages would be available to you – no protection from liquidation, no protection from slippage and no downside protection,” Bunce said.
Comprehensive offerings
As a premier brokerage company, Exness boasts a diverse array of tradable products, catering to various trading strategies and preferences. These broad-spectrum assets allow traders to stay aligned with market volatility and capitalize on opportunities as they emerge in response to current events.
Their product portfolio comprises equities, indices, currencies, cryptocurrencies and commodities. Precious metals and energies are also vital sources of liquidity for their commodities business.
In terms of cryptocurrencies, specifically, they facilitate the trading of approximately $2.5 billion per day.
Strong across-the-board performance
Exness was founded in 2008 and has since established a solid reputation in the industry. And the company’s performance has been a source of satisfaction for its shareholders.
“We have demonstrated considerable year-on-year growth across all the core metrics that we track such as Loyal Monthly Active Users and Partners (LMAU/LMAP), revenues and margin, trading volumes, and the number of active traders,” Bunce said.
Nonetheless, Bunce clarifies that the brokerage industry itself has played a role in supporting Exness’ and other large brokers’ success, as the market conditions have been exceptionally conducive since the outbreak of COVID-19.
When COVID happened, the industry saw record numbers of entrants, which fueled a trading boom. Crypto markets offered traders a rollercoaster ride, while the U.S. market meme stocks were able to attract a younger generation of traders.
Several macro factors, ranging from interest rates and the U.S. debt ceiling to tensions between superpowers, also helped foster a dynamic market for traders.
Continued growth
The past two years have seen Exness go on a hiring spree. While this has since slowed down in certain areas where the company has reached critical mass, there remains a commitment to consolidation and strengthening.
Now, the company is dedicated to maintaining its momentum and securing continued growth. Exness is also focusing on key areas, such as data science, information security and fraud protection.
Simultaneously, Exness continues to invest in new regions and projects. For example, they are set to launch a B2B business in London in the upcoming quarter. Their ongoing expansion of the affiliate business across the world further underscores their commitment to future growth.
About Damian Bunce, chief customer officer of Exness
Damian Bunce is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience working in global markets most recently in FX and Commodities. In 2023, he was named the chief customer officer (CCO) at Exness, a top-tier retail brokerage and market maker. This appointment followed his previous position as chief trading officer which he held since 2021. Prior to Exness, Bunce was chief commercial officer and member of the Board of Management at Saxo Bank. He was the chief architect of Sberbank Markets, the eFX platform of Russia’s Sberbank, building it to the largest USD/RUB liquidity source in the world.
His 15-year career includes managing director roles at global investment banks Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs working mainly in equities. In the early years of his professional life after graduating, he worked in the technology sector at IBM. Bunce completed the global executive leadership program at Yale School of Management in 2016. He earned a Master of Science (MSc) in Computer Science from the University of Hull in the ’90s and a bachelor’s degree (BA Hons) in English at Roehampton University in London.
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